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Homeworld
Homeworld is the critically-acclaimed first installment in the computer game series of the same name. Released in 1999 the game covers the first part of two-part computer game series. Upon release the game quickly became a surprising success, taking the Game of the Year award from IGN. Since then the game has been the only of its kind (a 3D real-time strategy game) to be highly successful. Opening sequence 100 years ago, a satellite detected an object under the sands of the Great Desert. An expedition was sent. An ancient starship, buried in the sand. Deep inside the ruin was a single stone that would change the course of our history forever. On the stone was etched a galactic map and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves: Hiigara. Our home. The clans were united and a massive colony ship was designed. Construction would take 60 years. It would demand new technologies, new industries and new sacrifices. The greatest of these was made by the scientist Karan S'jet who had herself permanently integrated into the colony ship as its living core. She is now Fleet Command. The promise of the Guidestone united the entire population. Every mind became focused on the true origin of our people ... ... every effort on the construction of the ship that would seek it out among the stars. Mission List *01 Kharak System *02 Outskirts of Kharak System *03 Return to Kharak *04 Great Wastelands **04.5 Raider Retreat (Raider Retreat demo only) *05 Great Wastelands *06 Diamond Shoals *07 Gardens of Kadesh *08 Cathedral of Kadesh *09 Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls *10 Supernova Station *11 Tenhauser Gate *12 Galactic Core *13 The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands *14 Bridge of Sighs *15 Chapel Perilous *16 Hiigara Synopsis , a galactic map.]] The ancient Hiigaran Empire is long forgotten and has been replaced by their conquerors, the Taiidan who now rule over a corrupt and decadent empire. The ancient Kushan have left their homeworld as exiles and have settled on the desert world Kharak, where over time they would reconstruct their civilization from the ground up, their heritage dwindling into myth and legend. That is until the Kushan begin to discover objects within the orbit of their world, ancient derelicts long abandoned. Obviously of artificial design and forged from some metal unknown to the Kushan, the various Kushan clans called kiithid unite their efforts to discover the origins of this wreckage. Reaching for the stars they launch probes and satellites, deploy sensors to search for more of this mysterious wreckage. During the launch of one of these satellites, something goes wrong, and the probe turns towards the deserts of Kharak rather than the sky. But the malfunction turns out to be a stroke of luck, when beneath the sands of Kharak, an enormous metallic object like the ones in orbit of Kharak is discovered. Even larger than the others, about the size of a city. Immediately an archaeological team is dispatched and the site is excavated, revealing a large city surrounding the wreckage of a ship. Inside they find technological wonders unlike any other the Kushan have known. A great observatory temple is built within the wreckage of a hyperdrive, a device capable of using quantum physics to transverse the galaxy faster than the speed of light. Immediately it is salvaged and studied so that it, and many other secrets of the wreckage now called Khar-Toba or "First City", may be unlocked. But an even greater artifact awaits excavation. The Mothership Project The discovery of the 'Guidestone, on which a galactic map was etched, revealing the location of the mythical paradise Hiigara, a word that means "our home" in the Kushan language. With the Guidestone in hand the Kushan settle their remaining differences and build an enormous vessel which they call "the ''Mothership". The hyperdrive salvaged from the wreckage of the Khar-Toba is reverse engineered so that an identical copy may be built into the ''Mothership's reactor core. The construction of the Mothership takes 60 years, but to the Kushan their efforts are worth the chance of rediscovering Hiigara. Every ounce of resources available to the ruling council of the Kushan, the Daiamid is devoted completely to completing and launching the Mothership. Sacrifices are made, personal needs put aside for the whole. Though there are some who see the effort to return to the mythic paradise a sin against the heavens, they are overwhelmed by the massive drive of the Kushan to know the secrets of their past. The last of the Mothership's systems to be placed is that of the mainframe CPU known as '''Fleet Command. Efforts to design the computer are futile as each AI program designed proves to be unable to comply with the overwhelming amount of information passing through the systems of the Mothership every instant. Unable to design a sufficient program, a young and brilliant neuroscientist from the nobility of the scientifically inclined Kiith Sjet suggests a new method. Rather than design an AI that can manage the ship, Fleet Command's processes will be based on the complexity of the brain. In the greatest sacrifice of all, Karan Sjet offers herself for this experimental technology. The Mothership almost complete, a few preliminary trials are made to test its capabilities as well as those of its escort fleet. Overseen by Fleet Intelligence, a collection of Kharak's brightest minds designed to advise Karan and devise plans of action, the new Mothership Fleet tests its combat, research, and resource gathering capabilities among others. When the tests in orbit of Kharak are complete Fleet Intelligence, satisfied with the results, begins testing the last major function of the Fleet... the hyperdrive. The journey home has almost begun. The Fate of the Khar-Selim The hyperdrive test was designed to bring the Mothership into contact with a supply and research station, the Khar-Selim, which had been journeying the outer reaches of the Kharak System for some ten years. However, the Mothership misjumps, S'jet still unfamiliar with the navigation of the vessel. The Mothership still arrives incredibly close to its destination, within several kilometers of the rendezvous point. As Fleet Intelligence tries to work out their location Fleet Command sends out a signal to the Khar-Selim, hoping to locate its signal. Unable to get any response other than a beacon near the rendezvous point, the Mothership dispatches a probe to discover what happened to the vessel. Unfortunately, fate was not to be kind to the wayward Kushan. The probe discovers the Khar-Selim in shambles, destroyed by some unknown enemy. Shortly thereafter the enemy arrives in arms, detecting the probe. The strange, alien fleet attacks the Mothership almost immediately and the colony ship is suddenly turned into the flagship of an armada as the Kushan leap to defend themselves against this unexpected onslaught. Kushan fighters are deployed at once as well as newly constructed corvettes. Though the attackers make headway against the Kushan, they are soon destroyed. Eager to discover the identity of their attackers and recover whatever information the Khar-Selim had on them before it was destroyed, Fleet Intelligence advises a salvage team be deployed to recover the onboard records of the Khar-Selim, which should have survived the destruction of the station. The salvage team is deployed, heavily escorted in case the enemy is not yet completely destroyed. Their fears are realized when, while gathering the records, the attackers once again dive upon the Kushan, held off barely by the corvette's escorts. Fleet Intelligence then discovers the location of an enemy carrier nearby and deploys a group of strike craft to destroy it, keeping another group to defend the Mothership as it analyzes the recovered records. After some time the records are unlocked but little else is discovered about their enemy other than that it is now without doubt the attacker of the Khar-Selim, audio recording the same chatter between the pilots noticed by the Mothership. Determined to both defend themselves and avenge the Khar-Selim Fleet Intelligence orders the Fleet to destroy the attackers at all costs. Driven off by the ferocity of the Kushan the enemy carrier retreats, along with several of its fighter escorts, deciding this fight is not worth the effort. Realizing that their enemy is not likely finished Fleet Intelligence advises S'jet to bring the Mothership back to Kharak to finish adding its weapon modules and to warn the Daiamid of the new threat. The Kharakian Genocide , following the Burning.]] When the Kushan arrive however they find a world ruined, destroyed by another enemy. Kharak's atmosphere burns and its deserts turn to glass. The scaffold has been wrecked, strewn into debris that slowly orbits around the dead world. Overhead, in orbit, the Fleet watches the world burn and comes to term with their place as the last of their species. But the Kushan do not have long to come to terms with their grief. Within a minute of their arrival Fleet Intelligence realizes that the alien attackers have not left yet and that they are still present, a few frigate class warships staying behind to finish the job by destroying the cryo trays left in orbit over Kharak, inside of which lie the last remnants of the Kushan, frozen for transport on the ''Mothership. Realizing their predicament and that they need to recover the trays intact for their species to survive, Fleet Intelligence orders the fleet into action, to neutralize the enemy vessels attacking the cryo trays while a group of salvagers retrieve the trays for storage in the Mothership's hold. Armed only with fighters and corvettes the Kushan assault the enemy frigates, harassing them while a small group of salvagers manage to rescue all six of the cryo trays, saving almost 600,000 lives in the process. While recovering the trays, wanting to learn more about the enemy they face, Fleet Intelligence orders the salvagers to interrupt their recovery of the trays so that they may capture one of the enemy frigates and interrogate its crew. Successful in their venture the Kushan find a recording of the attack on Kharak, showing an enormous battlefleet led by a carrier of some sort. After destroying the scaffold and its defense fleet the aliens then destroy Kharak in a barrage of plasma and Atmosphere Deprivation Weapons. With no homeworld left but the one they seek to find and with all they knew dead and gone the Kushan fall into a frenzy of grief and rage. Destroying the last of the frigates and recovering anything useful they can from the wreckage, the Kushan sadly depart their surrogate home, intent on revenge. Counterstrike in the Great Wastelands While in hyperspace the Kushan manage to recover some useful information from their prisoners, particularly from the alien captain. He indicates that his people are the Taiidan, whose control spans a galactic empire and whom were ordered to destroy the Kushan based on a four thousand year old treaty forbidding the redevelopment of the hyperdrive. The Kushan are unaware of their past and know nothing of their defeat by the Taiidan millennia ago and see only in their enemies evil. Caring little for the welfare of their prisoners the Kushan interrogation leads to the Taiidan captain's death. The information gathered from the captain also indicates that the Taiidan are located in a desolate but resource rich area of space known as the Great Wastelands, near the Great Nebula. Motivated by a desire for vengeance the Kushan jump to the Great Wastelands, near their quarry, and prepare to destroy the Taiidan fleet. However, while they are preparing for battle and collecting nearby resources the Kushan are joined by a mysterious mothership sized vessel. The vessel turns out to be a Bentusi Tradeship. The Bentusi, interstellar merchants who travel the galaxy in search of trade, offer the Kushan a new weapon technology, the ion cannon which will give the Kushan a new edge in battle. In exchange for a considerable sum of funds the Bentusi give the blueprints for the weapon to the Kushan and depart, warning the Kushan that danger approaches. In concordance with their warning the Turanic Raiders, the ones who destroyed the Khar-Selim, arrive and assault the Kushan fleet. Dozens of strike craft swarm the Mothership and the Turanics also bring stronger ships to bear. Several ion array frigates jump in around the Mothership and immediately begin to pummel its hulls with high power ion beams. Shortly thereafter the Turanic carrier Rancor arrives, escorted by more frigates. However, the new Kushan weapons are more than enough to dispose of the Turanics and they are destroyed before they can even so much as warn the Taiidan of the Kushan's survival and power. Finishing their collection of resources and preparing for battle the Kushan jump to the location of the Taiidan carrier fleet. Hidden by the dust clouds surrounding the area the Taiidan fleet is completely unaware of the Kushan presence in the area. After assembling their fleet the Kushan send out scouts to locate the Taiidan position. Discovering the Taiidan position and the Taiidan now aware of the Kushan presence the two fleets collide. Though the Taiidan have the advantage of numbers and firepower the Kushan hold their position against the constant Taiidan assault, finally neutralizing every last ship. Their vengeance complete the Kushan consider their position. When they attacked the Taiidan carrier fleet the Kushan made known their survival, sending the Empire into chaos. Imperial garrisons across the galaxy are mobilized as an interstellar broadcast is made, alerting the Imperial Fleet to the Kushan's location. Realizing the span of the Empire's defenses the Kushan consider, there must be another way to get past the Taiidan defenses than simply blasting their way through. Needing more information they set up a rendezvous with the Bentusi who helped them earlier. Hiding within the tail of a comet the Kushan meet in secret with the Bentusi, not only gaining drone technology in exchange for more resources, but also discussing the possibility of using the Great Nebula to secretly bypass the Taiidan garrisons. The Bentusi give little in reply to the Kushan's curiosity, merely warning that "no one returns." With little else to go on however the Kushan ignore the Bentusi's warning and enter the nebula. The Gardens of Kadesh Upon entering the Nebula the Kushan soon discover the truth of the Bentusi's warnings. Needing resources to replenish their fleet after their battles with the Turanics and Taiidan Fleet Intelligence authorizes collecting the numerous resources stored in the Nebula's dust clouds. Shortly after beginning resource collection however the Kushan are met by a race more fearsome than either the Imperial Fleet or the Turanic Raiders. A mysterious needle-shaped mothership-class vessel moves into position nearby the Fleet, launching from it a single fighter. In response the Kushan launch their ambassador. The fighter, whose pilot calls its people the Protectors of the Garden informs the Kushan that the Nebula is considered sacred and that they call it the Garden of Kadesh. By resourcing the Kushan have defiled the Nebula and must be punished. Either the Kushan will join with the Kadeshi or they will be destroyed. While the Kushan try to salvage the situation the alien breaks off negotiations and is recalled. From the needleship emerge swarms of swarming fighters, all of whom descend upon the Kushan in a frenzy of attack. Faster and stronger than most Kushan strikecraft they pummel the Fleet. Forced to defend themselves the Kushan contend against the dangerous aliens, whom they dubb the Kadeshi after the alien name for the Great Nebula. The Kadeshi use not only powerful fighters but also deadly multi-beam frigates. Still, by using their heads and exploiting the Kadeshi weaknesses the Kushan are able to repel their attackers and attempt a jump to hyperspace. Unfortunately for the Kushan a jump is not possible as the Kadeshi Mothership is able to project an inhibition field, preventing the Mothership from forming and maintaining a quantum wavefront. Now realizing it is necessary to attack the Kadeshi Mothership itself Fleet Command directs the fleet to action. Though the Kadeshi weaponry and numbers are impressive they finally retreat. The threat now gone the Mothership jumps immediately into hyperspace. While in hyperspace Fleet Intelligence examines what they discovered about the Kadeshi. One of the more intriguing things they learn is that the Kadeshi Mothership's hyperdrive signature is identical to that of the Mothership's, a discovery that raises many questions about the Kadeshi's origins. Perhaps, Fleet Intelligence hypothesizes, the Kadeshi are somehow connected to Hiigara. The Mothership's journey out of the Nebula is not long however. Once again the Kushan are pulled from hyperspace. Again the Kadeshi ambassador offers the option of joining them, impressed by the Kushan's ability to fight them off. S'jet offers a similar proposal, revealing that the Kadeshi may be the same race as that of the Kushan. The ambassador refuses, claiming the Kushan will fail and lead the "great evil" back to the Nebula. To prevent the Kushan from revealing their existence to the Taiidan the Kadeshi again attack the Mothership, this time overwhelming the Kushan with stronger fighters as well as three motherships. Forced to defend themselves the Kushan regretfully prepare for the annihilation of whom they are now certain are their brethren. In a painfully slow process the Mothership Fleet destroys the three enemy motherships, breaking down the inhibition field around the Mothership. In the process they discover a Kadeshi wreckage whose design is identical to the Khar-Toba. Now the Kushan know for sure that Kadeshi are indeed of Hiigaran origin as well. All the same, they must destroy the last of the enemy motherships if they are to survive. It is possible that the Kadeshi weren't wiped out, as there could have been more throughout the Nebula. It made little difference, however. After the Kadeshi are defeated the Kushan leave the Nebula once and for all. The Push for the Core Despite this incident the Kushan push on, now not only past the dangerous Nebula but also the brunt of the Imperial Taiidan defenses. Shortly after clearing the mid rim dust bank the Mothership Fleet takes time to recuperate its losses in an empty region of space. In the area however Fleet Intelligence detects a mysterious gravitational field centred nearby. Curious they order an investigation of the field. To the surprise of the Kushan they discover an ancient, dead ship around which are floating several ships of Taiidan, Turanic, or even Kadeshi design. All of which open fire as soon as they detect the presence of the Kushan. Fleet Intelligence orders the neutralization of the derelict. Only fighters are able to do damage however as capital ships in short range of the ghost ship are immediately taken over. After neutralizing the vessel the Kushan are visited again by their Bentusi allies. In return for the neutralization of the vessel, which apparently has plagued the galaxy for some time, the Kushan are granted with more technology the Kushan request of the Bentusi further assistance against the Taiidan. The Bentusi politely refuse and the Kushan push on, disappointed by the Bentusi's solid neutrality. Their next target is a supernova research station located nearby. It is the weakest point in the Imperial defense grid and the Kushan are well aware that the Taiidan have not yet learned that the Kushan have breached their defenses. Fleet Intelligence orders the annihilation of the station. Using dust clouds in the area to both hide their fleet and protect them from the radiation of the supernova the Kushan easily surprise the Imperial garrison, annihilating the fleet and granting them passage to the Core. Once again their journey is delayed for the Taiidan discover that the Bentusi have been aiding the Kushan and ambush them, nearly destroying a tradeship. The Kushan, fortunately for their allies, arrive in time to save them from destruction. As thanks the Bentusi relinquish their original vow of neutrality and give the Kushan information regarding the origin of their exile and promise to seek the assistance of the Galactic Council, who may be able to force the Empire into negotiation. With this promise the Bentusi depart and the Kushan head further down the path to Hiigara. A New Alliance And yet, before they can reach their destination they themselves are ambushed by a cleverly set trap. Using a large number of gravwell generators the Taiidan pull the Mothership Fleet out of hyperspace. Then, with its fighters defenseless and unable to make the jump to hyperspace the Fleet is mercilessly attacked by Imperial capital ships hidden by cloak generators. However, the Kushan are better prepared than the Imperials seem to think. Using their own impressive capital fleet the Kushan annihilate the Taiidan gravwells and disable the cloaking fields. Intent on destroying the now scattered Imperial carrier fleets the Kushan plow through a considerable portion of the Imperial Fleet, badly damaging the Empire's future capacities in war. Their success is partially due to the fact that the Taiidan were not prepared for a fleet such as theirs. The trap had really been lain for another, for the Taiidan rebel leader Captain Elson who arrives just in time along with his vessel the Kapella to be rescued by a powerful Kushan fleet. Despite the Kushan distrust of the Taiidan Fleet, Intelligence realizes that the possibility of a defector is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss. Ordering all strike groups to escort Elson's ship his pursuers are repelled. As soon as Elson's ship is safe the Kushan jump out of the area, ready to get whatever information they possibly can out of Elson. The defector reveals that he is a member of a widespread rebellion against the tyrannical Empire. Elson offers the Kushan an alliance with the rebellion but first requires access to a transmitter capable of broadcasting a coded transmission through hyperspace towards the other rebel leaders, allowing him to coordinate with them. Elson says he knows where one such device lies, if the Kushan will let him show them. Fleet Intelligence agrees and he directs the Kushan to the Karos Graveyard, an ancient nest of derelicts. The Kushan arrive at Elson's coordinates and discover that he tells the truth. Throughout the Graveyard are many derelicts, including a transmitter such as the one Elson speaks of. Eager to dock with the transmitter and send the message the Kushan prepare an expedition. Yet the Graveyard is not safe for within it dwells an ancient and AI-controlled vessel known as the Junkyard Dog, which lurks the Graveyard searching for trespassing capital ships to add to the field's gruesome collection. In addition the transmitter itself is guarded by automated turrets, capable of targeting and destroying vessels not protected by a cloaking field. Proximity sensors are also located throughout the field, rendering cloaking useless. Despite the Graveyard's ancient guardians the Kushan are able to activate and use the derelict transmitter, successfully locating the Rebellion and beginning a new alliance that will unite the enemies of the Empire. Elson leaves the Fleet, telling the Kushan that he will begin coordination for the final attack on Hiigara. The future looking bright S'jet moves the Mothership closer towards the Kushan homeworld. Hiigara Before advancing on Hiigara the Kushan must first arrayed around the edge of its system for Hiigara is not only the Kushan homeworld, but also the capital of the Taiidan Empire. Outside Hiigara is a hyperspace inhibitors network. If the Kushan are to reach their homeworld they must somehow disable these weapons. To do so they jump to the central point in this defense system. Protected by a large fleet of ion cannon frigates the inhibitors are nigh unreachable but through cunning the Kushan once again prevail. Destroying the entire inhibitor system as well and destroying hyperspace gates that allow reinforcements to arrive at a whim the Kushan manage to escape the vengeance of the Taiidan again, now heading at full speed for their home. Now... with Hiigara in reach they prepare for the final battle, halted only shortly by a last Taiidan attempt at destroying them before they reach Hiigara using a large asteroid and hyperspace inhibitors to ground the fleet. But when the Kushan destroy the asteroid and jump towards Hiigara for the last time the Empire realizes at last the danger posed to it. When the Kushan arrive in orbit of Hiigara they find that Karan S'jet, their Fleet Command, has been put out of order and is in dire danger. Without a coordinated fleet the Kushan find themselves on the brink of defeat as strike group after strike group descends upon the Kushan without mercy. Fleet Intelligence is sure that the fleet is in grave danger when a fleet jumps in directly above them, until they discover it is Elson who arrives with the promised reinforcements, decimating the Imperial Fleet and clearing the path of the Kushan to attack the vile Emperor Riesstiu IV the Second, ending the war once and for all. In the final seconds S'jet comes back online at last and witnesses the death of the Emperor. With the war over and the Kushan victorious the Galactic Council arrives and allows the Kushan access to Hiigara. Their exile at an end the Kushans begin landfall and the celebration below. S'jet, miraculously removed from the hyperspace core safely, is the last to set foot on her new home. Gameplay Homeworld is known both for its massive online community and single player elements. Gameplay, both single and multiplayer, is complicated beyond the real-time strategy standard by the addition of a third dimension of unit positioning, first time amongst RTS games ever. While Homeworld's user interface has a greater learning curve, it allows players full control of their ships, which range from agile strike craft to lumbering capital ships. Each unit serves a particular function and represents a tradeoff in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost. In addition, the player may choose to play as either the Kushan or Taiidan, both online and in the single-player campaign. The differences are mostly in cosmetic ship design, with parallel ships (the Kushan ''Vengeance''-class Assault Frigate versus Taiidan ''Kudaark''-class Assault Frigate) looking different but having almost identical hit points, armor, speed, weapons, etc. However, each race does feature two unique units (the Kushan Cloaking Fighter and Drone Frigate versus the Taiidani Defense Fighter and Defense Field Frigate), and equivalent ships often have different gun positioning, usually in favor of the Taiidan. Single Player The single-player campaign includes 16 missions, and uses a unique fleet inheritance concept (aka persistent fleet), in which all ships from a previous mission remain in the next. Therefore, it is theoretically possible for a ship built in the first mission to still be present at the end of the game. This feature, coupled with the limited availability of resources in each level, forces players to make hard decisions on the make-up of their fleets. However, some players find that this feature can make the game very hard, and dooms a player who starts off weak in force to failing some very tough missions later in the game. Some of these include fighting massive guardian fleets, or trying to destroy a massive incoming object whilst your mothership is stranded, with no ability to move out of the way. These missions require raw firepower, which a player may not necessarily have, requiring them to replay few previous missions changing their build strategy. The flip-side of the persistent fleet is that the game becomes progressively easier if the player is skilled enough to finish a level with a larger fleet than was intended. Others missions require delicate control of fleet assets, such as manoeuvring ships through dust pockets to protect the fleet from damage by a supernova's radiation. The ultimate goal of the single player mode is to find the Homeworld of the chosen protagonist race. But, it should be noted that the story and vantage point will remain unchanged regardless of the player's actual choice of race. In this and subsequent Homeworld games, Kushan are the canonical "heroes". The game was noticed for its ship-stealing mechanic. The "Salvage Corvettes" can be used (in numbers) to capture enemy ships and convert them to your control, and the player is required to do so as early as the third mission of the single-player campaign. However, this can be somewhat challenging to accomplish, as the game's AI (not to mention the wise player) gives immediate priority to any Salvage Corvettes involved in ship-stealing. The greatest advantage to Salvage Corvettes is that ships can be obtained in this way even after the player has exhausted the capacity of the game's built-in unit-limiting system. Additionally, ships may be captured before they are available to build, if they can be built at all. This allows player to create unique fleet composed of ships of almost each encountered race, breaking build limits, as well as making game far easier. Multiplayer The multiplayer community for Homeworld was large from its very beginnings in 1999. At its peak in 2000 and 2001 there were more than 18,000 players registered to the Ladder. Several dozen clans were active at the peak, since its release more than one hundred individual clans have been founded. There are still hundreds of active players and a handful of large clans. Today the original community of dedicated players still survives at the official Relic forums and on IRC. The general flow of gameplay online resembles other real-time strategy games, such as Dune II and the Command & Conquer series. The player scouts the map, harvests resources and builds units. Since the game takes place in space, there are obviously no 'structures' as in most RTS games; however, the Mothership, carriers, and research ships essentially serve the same purposes, allowing the player to construct and upgrade units. It further differs from many contemporary RTS games by having only one resource type, aptly named Resource Units (RUs), although RUs may be mined from asteroids or nebulae. Additionally, Homeworld does not place strict limits on unit counts as many other games do, instead having a per-class cap which allows for players to retain large groups of smaller vessels while adding more powerful ships later (many popular games, such as Warcraft, have support units which force players to compromise and strike a balance between unit classes). Also of note is the fact that the use of Salvage Corvettes to steal opposing craft allows a player to exceed this cap, though building of new craft will still be disabled until the number of craft falls below the cap. Homeworld's original multiplayer lobby, called WON,stopped in 2004. The steps for playing online consisedt only of creating a new player account from inside Homeworld's own user interface, and patching the game itself to the newest version. The majority of players take part in games using network created with Hamachi. Reception Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including E3 "Best Strategy of the Year", PC Gamer's "Game of the Year" award, IGN's "Game of the Year" award for 1999, USA Today "Top Game of the Year". In 3rd quarter of 1999 Homeworld was sold in number of 250,000. Till September 2000 there were half a million of Homeworld copies sold, outrageous amount in that time. Voice Cast and Characters *The Narrator - Campbell Lane *Fleet Command/Karan Sjet - Heidi Ernest *Voice of the Bentusi - Campbell Lane *Voice of Fleet Intelligence - Michael Suncyzk *Captain Elson - David Sobolov *Kadeshi Ambassador - David Sobolov *Pilot Voices - Ian James Corlett, David Sobolov, Jason Wingham *Additional Voices - Brian Arnold, Tina Savoie, Lucas Wolf Design Team *Director - Alex Garden *Lead Designer - Erin Daly *Lead Programmer - Luke Moloney *Art Director - Rob Cunningham *Lead Artist - Aaron Kambeitz *Designers - Adam Bullied, Quinn Duffy *Programmers - Jason Dorie, Drew Dunlop, Keith Hentschel, Bryce Pasechnik, Falko Poiker, Gary Shaw, Darren Stone *Artists - Andy Lang, Kelly O'Hara, Erin Olorenshaw, Arthur Shimizu, David T. Cheong, Art We *Music and Sound Effects - Paul Ruskay, Roger Savoie *Sound Programming - Shane Alfreds, Janik Joire *CFO - Curtis Terry *IT Support - Frank Roberts *Manual Story - Montgomery E. Crabapple (pen name for Martin Cirulis and Arinn Dembo) *Manual Design - Rubber Oven Design (David Kirby, Jon Pensa) *Story Concept - Dave Williams *Detailed Story and Dialogue - Martin Cirulis (uncredited) *Manual Illlustrations - Thomas Graham, Rob Cunningham, Aaron Kambeitz *Astronomy Consultant - Jaymie M. Matthews *Deep Space Dry Methane Martinis - Jaymie M. Matthews Trivia *''Homeworld'' was originally meant to be a game adaptation of the cult space opera television show Battlestar Galactica but Relic failed to obtain the rights. The story concept was designed later. *Captain Elson is named after Peter Elson, a cover artist for the Terran Trade Authority books whose art helped inspire the ship designs and art style of Homeworld. *The original story for Homeworld 2 was already outlined in 1999, the year Homeworld was released. * It is possible to make Homeworld run on higher resolutions, such as 1600x900, 1600x1200. However, this requires that you modify your registry and therefore, there is a risk of the game being corrupted and require a reinstall. Follow the instructions in this thread (ignoring Step One) * As revealed by Martin Cirulis, in the original script Karan S'jet was impossible to remove from the mothership. She was left in Hiigaran orbit as an eternal guardian of her people. Bugs *Capital and Super-Capital ships that are in formation nearest the mothership will have their exhaust bubble behind them, as though they are not in place. *A periodically common glitch where two or more ships (a friendly and an enemy) will pass through one another. it is commonly seen in salvage corvettes trying to run off with a capital or super-capital ship, and sometimes salvaging a fighter or corvette. *On a few occasions, frigates will go belly-up after leaving the mothership. They will turn back up when they reach their destination. *A rare glitch in the case of frigates moving out of formation while in the process of exiting hyperspace. If it happens, you need to press 'cancel orders' to stop the movement after exiting is complete. See Also * Easter Eggs in Homeworld games Sources * Homeworld * Homeworld Manual * Homeworld Access External links *Relic Entertainment - Developer of Homeworld *RelicNews - RelicNews *Homeworld SDL *Homeworld SDL Forums, official Category:Games